
Johan Museeuw is a retired Belgian professional road racing cyclist who was a professional from 1988 until 2004. Nicknamed The Lion of Flanders, he was particularly successful in the cobbled classics of Flanders and Northern France and was considered one of the best classic races specialists of the 1990s.

Paolo Bettini is an Italian former champion road racing cyclist, and the former coach of the Italian national cycling team. Considered the best classics specialist of his generation, and probably one of the strongest of all times, he won gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics road race and in the 2006 and 2007 World Road Race Championships. He is nicknamed Il Grillo for his repeated sudden attacks and his sprinting style.

The classic cycle races are the most prestigious one-day professional road cycling races in the international calendar. Some of these events date back to the 19th century. They are normally held at roughly the same time each year. The five most revered races are often described as the cycling monuments.

The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long road cycling competition held from 1989 until 2004 and comprising ten one-day events.

Andrei Tchmil is a retired Soviet, Moldovan (1992–1994), Ukrainian (1994–1998) and Belgian professional road bicycle racer. He competed in the men's individual road race at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Davide Rebellin was an Italian professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1992 and 2022 for twelve different teams, taking more than sixty professional wins. He was considered one of the finest classics specialists of his generation with more than fifty top ten finishes in UCI Road World Cup and UCI ProTour classics.

Michele Bartoli is a retired Italian road racing cyclist. Bartoli was a professional cyclist from 1992 until 2004 and was one of the most successful single-day classics specialists of his generation, especially in the Italian and Belgian races. On his palmarès are three of the five monuments of cycling—five in total: the 1996 Tour of Flanders, the 1997 and 1998 Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the 2002 and 2003 Giro di Lombardia. He won the UCI Road World Cup in 1997 and 1998. From 10 October 1998 until 6 June 1999, Bartoli was number one on the UCI Road World Rankings.

Hendrikus Andreas "Hennie" Kuiper is a Dutch former professional road racing cyclist. His career includes a gold medal in the Olympic road race at Munich in 1972, becoming world professional road race champion in 1975, as well as winning four of the five "Monument" classics. He rode the Tour de France 12 times, finishing second twice and winning the stage to Alpe d'Huez on two occasions. Kuiper, Ercole Baldini and Paolo Bettini are the only riders to have won both the Olympic road race and the world professional road race.

Franco Ballerini was an Italian road racing cyclist.

The 2004 UCI Road World Cup was the sixteenth and last edition of the UCI Road World Cup. There was no change in the calendar from the 2003 edition, meaning the final seven editions had the same calendar.

Léon Hendrik Jan van Bon is a retired road racing cyclist from the Netherlands, who won the silver medal in the men's points race at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He won his first major race at the professionals in 1998, winning the HEW Cyclassics. In 2001 he claimed the overall-victory in the Ronde van Nederland. Van Bon retired in 2013.

Fabio Baldato is an Italian former racing cyclist. In 2008, he was the oldest rider in a ProTour team. His cycling career ended when he crashed heavily in the Eneco Tour. He also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1996 Summer Olympics.

The 2003 UCI Road World Cup was the fifteenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It had the same calendar of the 2000 edition.

The 2001 UCI Road World Cup was the thirteenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup.

The 1996 UCI Road World Cup was the eighth edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It was won by Belgian classics specialist Johan Museeuw of the Mapei–GB team.

The 1997 UCI Road World Cup was the ninth edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It was won by Italian classics specialist Michele Bartoli of the MG Maglificio–Technogym team.

The 1998 UCI Road World Cup was the tenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup, cycling's season-long competition of the ten top-tier one-day classics. It was won by Italian classics specialist Michele Bartoli of the Asics–CGA team. Italian team Mapei–Bricobi won the team competition and placed four riders in the individual top-ten.

The 2000 UCI Road World Cup was the twelfth edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It was won by Erik Zabel. Zabel led the classification after all the single races, the only time this feat happened in World Cup history.

The 1999 UCI Road World Cup was the eleventh edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It was won by Belgian classics specialist Andrei Tchmil.
The 2002 HEW Cyclassics was the seventh edition of the HEW Cyclassics cycle race and was held on 4 August 2002. The race started and finished in Hamburg. The race was won by Johan Museeuw.